1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning material for a contact lens. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a contact lens cleaning material is capable of effectively cleaning the contact lens in a simplified manner with a sufficiently high degree of detergency and which is easy to carry around, assuring excellent portability.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
For removing stains adhering to a contact lens while the contact lens is worn on an eye of a user, there are proposed various kinds of cleaning agents and cleaning devices. Any one of those cleaning agents and cleaning devices or any combination thereof is conventionally used for cleaning the contact lens.
Generally, when the cleaning agent is used to clean the contact lens, the contact lens is cleaned by rubbing, using the cleaning agent (liquid agent), so as to remove the stains adhering to the contact lens, and then rinsed by a rinsing liquid (which functions also as a storing liquid). This procedure for cleaning the contact lens requires at least two kinds of liquid agents, i.e., the cleaning agent and rinsing liquid. In general, liquid agents are bulky, and therefore low portability.
Recently, a so-called "all-in-one type" liquid agent for the contact lens is commercially available. This "all-in-one type" liquid agent has various functions such as a cleaning agent, storing agent and disinfecting agent, for instance. When such an all-in-one type liquid agent is used for cleaning the contact lens, it is not necessary to carry around two or more bottles of the cleaning agent, storing agent and disinfecting agent, respectively. However, in general, the detergency of the all-in-one type liquid agent tends to be low because of its diverse functions. Further, it undesirably takes a relatively long period of time to effect a cleaning treatment on the contact lens when the all-in-one type liquid agent is used to clean the contact lens.
When the cleaning device is used to clean the contact lens, there are some problems as indicated below. That is, the cleaning device is bulky in general, and therefore has low portability. Further, the cleaning device usually requires an electric power source for driving same. Thus, the use of the cleaning device to clean the contact lens usually requires a suitable electric power source.
As described above, the contact lens is cleaned conventionally by using the cleaning agent or cleaning device. Alternatively, the cleaning agent and the cleaning device are used in combination to clean the contact lens. However, in any case, there are some problems in view of the detergency and portability. Thus, it has been desired to develop a novel cleaning material for a contact lens that is capable of cleaning the contact lens in a simplified manner while exhibiting a considerably high degree of detergency and excellent portability.